Macaca sylvanus Linnaeus 1758 from the Middle Pleistocene of Quecchia Quarry (Brescia, Northern Italy)

During the Plio-Pleistocene the Barbary macaque, Macaca sylvanus Linnaeus, 1758 was widely distributed throughout Europe and North Africa (Szalay and Delson, 1979; Delson, 1980; Rook et al., 2001), and it became extinct in Europe during the Late Pleistocene (Elton and O’Regan, 2014). Nowadays this primate is still present in North Africa and a small population has been reintroduced at Gibraltar (Modolo et al., 2005). The taxonomy of the Plio-Pleistocene European macaques is still debated but many authors agree in considering all the fossils as belonging to the M. sylvanus lineage, while the Pleistocene endemic M. majori Azzaroli, 1946 from Sardinia (Italy) has been considered a distinct valid species (Rook and O’Higgins, 2005). The occurrence of this species is documented from Late Pliocene to Late Pleistocene sites located in Northern and Central Italy. Here we describe unpublished dentognathic remains of Macaca sylvanus from the Middle Pleistocene site of Quecchia Quarry (Botticino, Brescia, North Italy)

New data on the Middle Pleistocene small mammal fauna from the Homo bearing site of Fontana Ranuccio (Anagni Basin, Central Italy)

The scanty small mammals material of the Middle Pleistocene Fontana Ranuccio site is characterized by the presence of six spe-cies belonging to three order: Eulipotyphla, Lagomorpha, and Rodentia. The small mammal fossils evidence from Fontana Ranuccio, instead the scarce number of specimens, indicates that the site is characterized by a warm and wooded environment with subordinate grassland

THE FIRST RECORD OF THE BIRCH MOUSE SICISTA IN THE UPPER PLEISTOCENE SEDIMENTS OF CAVERNA GENEROSA (COMO, NW ITALY), WITH MORPHOMETRICAL, MORPHOLOGICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

In this study the only one specimen collected and attributed to Sicista cf. subtilis from the Caverna Generosa has been described: a right mandible with first molar and m/2-m/3 alveoli. The Sicista specimen shows a morphological and morphometrical similarity to Sicista subtilis and it may represent the first record in Italy and the third in the whole Europe of the latter species. The discovery defines advancement in the Sicista paleogeography in the North of Italy and it certainly demonstrates that an important faunal migration during the Last Maximum Glacial involved the Western part of the Po valley, too.&nbsp

Interpreting Embedding Models of Knowledge Bases: A Pedagogical Approach

Knowledge bases are employed in a variety of applications from natural language processing to semantic web search; alas, in practice their usefulness is hurt by their incompleteness. Embedding models attain state-of-the-art accuracy in knowledge base completion, but their predictions are notoriously hard to interpret. In this paper, we adapt "pedagogical approaches" (from the literature on neural networks) so as to interpret embedding models by extracting weighted Horn rules from them. We show how pedagogical approaches have to be adapted to take upon the large-scale relational aspects of knowledge bases and show experimentally their strengths and weaknesses.Comment: presented at 2018 ICML Workshop on Human Interpretability in Machine Learning (WHI 2018), Stockholm, Swede

Un osso con incisioni di tipo paleolitico del Mas d’Azil conservato al Museo Civico di Luino (VA): una revisione critica

In occasione della dismissione del Museo Civico di Luino (VA) e della nuova catalogazione del materiale esposto per l’inclusione nelle collezioni del Museo di Clivio (VA), la Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le province di Como, Lecco, Monza Brianza, Pavia, Sondrio, Varese ha voluto analizzare un frammento osseo esposto, sul quale sono incise due figure di bovide. Questo frammento osseo, depositato da Ferrante Rittatore von Willer al Prof. Astini il 28 giugno 1968, è accompagnato da una documentazione originale di riferimento che riporta la provenienza del reperto dal sito francese del Mas d’Azil e attribuisce la sua cronologia a una età “Maddaleniana”. Nel 2018, su incarico della Soprintendenza si è proceduto alla revisione dell’oggetto per confermare l’autenticità dei segni grafici incisi. Le analisi hanno richiesto la produzione di materiale grafico, l’analisi microscopica dei tratti incisi per stabilire la morfologia dei solchi e per comprendere le varie relazioni tra gli elementi superficiali, ovvero patina, fratture e sedimento, e infine la contestualizzazione del reperto nella storia degli studi del sito di provenienza. E’ stata accertata la falsità delle figure incise, determinando che esse sono state realizzate su un osso fossile.On the occasion of the dismantling of the Civic Museum of Luino (VA) and the elaboration of the new catalogue of the exhibited material to be included in the collection of the Museum of Clivio (VA), the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le province di Como, Lecco, Monza Brianza, Pavia, Sondrio, Varese decided to analyse a bone fragment, into which two bovid figures were engraved. The bone fragment, deposited by Ferrante Rittatore von Willer to Prof. Astini on June 28th 1968, has an original recording documentation which reports the provenance of the piece from the French site of Mas d’Azil and its chronology, which is considered to be “Magdalenian”. In 2018, on behalf of the Soprintendenza, a review of the object was undertaken in order to confirm the authenticity of the engraved graphic signs. The analysis involved the complete collection of the graphic recording documentation, the microscopic analysis of the engraved signs to define the groove morphology and to understand the relationships among the superficial elements, i.e. patina, fractures and sediment, last, to put the finding into the frame of the site history of the site of provenance. So we conclude recognising that the engraved figures are fake, possibly done on a fossil bone

An introduction to the early Holocene eolian deposits of Grotta Romanelli, Apulia, Southern Italy

Due to its geographic position and geomorphological configuration, Grotta Romanelli acted as a sediment trap since at least MIS 5. The so-called 'terre brune' sequence is a deposit mainly of eolian origin bearing upper Palaeolithic artefacts and fossil re-mains of vertebrate fauna; it was deposited during the Glacial-Interglacial transition and the Holocene. Sedimentology and mineralogy of this deposit are investigated. The stratigraphic sequence provides a promising archive within which both human and climatic impacts can be studied

UNIVERSIDADE E COMPROMISSO SOCIAL: FACULDADE MUNICIPAL DE PALHOÇA (FMP) UM MARCO NA EDUCAÇAO SUPERIOR MUNICIPAL, PÚBLICA E GRATUITA.

Entendendo a relevância do compromisso social de uma instituição de ensino superior municipal este artigo objetiva relatar a importância de uma faculdade municipal para o desenvolvimento de um município. O artigo foi elaborado partindo-se de dados coletados, utilizando-se de pesquisa documental, observação participante e a utilização de questionário para coletar as informações necessárias, o questionário foi aplicado com os estudantes ingressantes nos anos de 2009, 2010 e 2011. No entanto, identificou-se o perfil dos acadêmicos que estudam na FMP são oriundos em sua maioria das escolas públicas que escolheram a Faculdade Municipal de Palhoça para fazer seu curso superior por ser uma instituição de referencia em ensino superior municipal. Concluiu-se que a importância da FMP para o município de Palhoça é imprescindível, pois a faculdade mobilizou a vida econômica, social e cultural do município e atualmente é indiscutível o seu papel no desenvolvimento local

Rediscovering Lutra lutra from Grotta Romanelli (southern Italy) in the framework of the puzzling evolutionary history of Eurasian otter

A river otter hemimandible has been rediscovered during the revision of the historical collections of G.A. Blanc from Grotta Romanelli, complementing the ongoing multidisciplinary research fieldwork on the site. The specimen, recovered from the level G (“terre rosse”; early Late Pleistocene or late Middle Pleistocene), is here assigned to Lutra lutra. Indeed, morphological and morphometric comparisons with other Quaternary Lutrinae fossils from Europe allow to exclude an attribution to the relatively widespread and older Lutra simplicidens, characterized by distinctive carnassial proportions. Differences with Cyrnaonyx antiqua, which possessed a more robust, shellfish-feeding dentition, support the view of a successful niche repartition between the two species during the late Middle to Late Pleistocene of Europe. The occurrence of Lutra lutra from the “terre rosse” of Grotta Romanelli suggests deep modifications of the landscapes due to the ecological adaptation of the taxon, and indicates that the Eurasian otter spread into Europe at the Middle–Late Pleistocene transition

An introduction to the early Holocene eolian deposits of Grotta Romanelli, Apulia, Southern Italy

Due to its geographic position and geomorphological configuration, Grotta Romanelli acted as a sediment trap since at least MIS 5. The so-called ‘terre brune’ sequence is a deposit mainly of eolian origin bearing upper Palaeolithic artefacts and fossil remains of vertebrate fauna; it was deposited during the Glacial-Interglacial transition and the Holocene. Sedimentology and mineralogy of this deposit are investigated. The stratigraphic sequence provides a promising archive within which both human and climatic impacts can be studied